Scanner – The Galactos Tapes

2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Scanner and the band is obviously celebrating it by offering to the fans a special release. “The Galactos Tapes” is a kind of best of album, a collection of 25 songs packed in a double cd. The first CD includes a selection of 15 tracks, all taken from the band’s glorious past catalog. You can find some great anthems here and probably some of the most brilliant teutonic compositions ever written, such as “Puppet On A String”, “Terrion”, “Warp 7” and “The Law”. The second CD includes 10 re-recordings of some classic ones, with the now already 10 years vocalist Efthimios Ioannidis. Axel A.J Julius remains the only original member and I guess the plan is simple as that: “We get the fans decide the 10 track listing via social media” and give the new lineup the chance to show its skills. Wisely, there’s no re-imagination as the 2017 versions stick to the original arrangements and lengths. But some would say that there’s nothing new for the fans if we want it to be 100% honest. On the plus side, the production is clearly superior to what was done before and Ioannidis is giving an excellent performance and screams with confidence and conviction like there’s no tomorrow. I know that most of you who own the old LPs probably won’t invest to it since you might think the material is so little to be attracted to, but for the newcomers, this is the best introduction to Scanner’s myth; this is how it’s done folks.